Lorenzo increases corner speed, no new engine

MotoGP world champion and 2011 title leader Jorge Lorenzo may not have had the rumoured new engine to test at Estoril on Monday, but he still left a happy man after increasing his corner speed.

MotoGP world champion and 2011 title leader Jorge Lorenzo may not have had the rumoured new engine to test at Estoril on Monday, but he still left a happy man after increasing his corner speed.

The Factory Yamaha Team told Crash.net that reports suggesting a new M1 engine could be present were down to Lorenzo being 'misheard' and the Mallorcan - like team-mate Ben Spies - instead focussed his attention on a new swing arm and updated suspension components.

Lorenzo also took the opportunity to test new electronic settings and the 2012 Bridgestone tyres.

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The #1, who leads the world championship by four points from Sunday's winner Dani Pedrosa, set the second fastest time of the test, just 0.105sec behind Gresini Honda's Marco Simoncelli.

"I'm very happy with the test we have done today," said Lorenzo, who rode for a huge 91 laps. "Before I was not feeling as safe and as comfortable going into corners as I did last year and in 2009.

"Now we have found something with the chassis set up that works much better so I feel comfortable again. I think we can be faster with the corners now so I am looking forward to going to France to keep fighting for more podiums."

"A very successful test I would say," added team manager Wilco Zeelenberg. "It will be useful for the rest of the season I'm sure. The most important thing we improved was corner speed entry and front-end safety so that's a double plus we can use at all tracks."

Lorenzo has taken 2-1-2 race finishes so far this year, but team-mate Spies has just a single sixth place to his credit after crashing out of the last two rounds.

The Texan's Sunday spill came after a tool was accidentally left clamped to the fuel breather pipe. Attempts to remove the tool resulted in a pipe coming lose, which Spies feared may be part of the braking system. The distraction eventually resulted in a fall.

Spies did his best to hit the reset button on Monday, when he rode for 69 laps and set the seventh fastest lap time, 1.2sec from Simoncelli.

"It's been a decent day of testing for us after what happened yesterday," he said. "We started over today and I've been happy with the sessions.

"We learned something later on this afternoon which I think is really going to benefit us in Le Mans that we haven't been able to try before now.

"There was a good lap time improvement today, I did the best I could with what I had so I'm looking forward to Le Mans to start fresh."